Meb Keflezighi was asked why he had been seen crying at the 24-mile mark of Saturday's U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trials, in which he was headed to an eighth place finish. "It was the emotion. The crowd was phenomenal for me. They said 'Meb, we love you. You're still our hero.'"

But if Alan Culpepper and Keflezighi, who were first and second at the 2004 U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trials in Birmingham (before Keflezighi went on to make history as a Olympic silver medalist in Athens), get to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it will have to be by making the team next summer in the 10,000-meter run. Culpepper dropped out of Saturday's Trials in New York at the 16-mile mark, and Keflezighi, in contention for much of the early going, drifted back to eighth place in 2:15:09.

At mile 19, "both of my calves cramped up," noted Keflezighi. "Breathing was great, but I couldn't move." Within the last two weeks he'd had either "food poisoning or stomach bug" that had left him dehydrated and "if somebody makes a move, I can't go on my toes." Keflezighi confessed "I felt like I was ready to win this race according to what my preparation was .... I was hoping today would be my first win in the marathon. It didn't happen, so I'll shoot for another one."

Culpepper said his hamstrings were feeling woeful. "At about the four-mile mark, I had the same sensation I usually feel with four miles to go." He had been encouraged by his training, but now realizes "I came in at a state of depletion." In any case, he abandoned the race since "I didn't see the point of staggering in to go ten more miles in agony."

Both veteran runners were impressed by Ryan Hall's dominating performance, a Trials victory in 2:09:02. Culpepper admitted to being "blown away" by some of Hall's mile splits and observed "I think he could run three minutes faster on a standard marathon course." Culpepper added "he ran 2:09 waving to people in the last two miles. The guy could have run 2:08:30 today on this course." Experience is valuable, but Hall was only in his second marathon and "naivete plays a big part, too," submits Culpepper. "You kind of don't know what you're in for. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing." Keflezighi said of Hall "the most impressive thing is he can run on his own. He's out in front; he's a frontrunner," and is clearly "in his comfort zone."

The disappointment of these Marathon Trials actually had these two 30somethings looking ahead. Culpepper will turn his attention to that aforementioned 10,000-meter race at the Track & Field Trials; Keflezighi could be in that or in spring anfd fall marathons in 2008 "or all three." Although Culpepper is "proud of these young guys, that they stepped up," he makes clear "I know guys like myself and Meb and Abdi (Abdirahman, who also dropped out on Saturday) aren't going to give it up easily. I have too much faith in our ability."